Paruppusili

We had invited our friend and his family for dinner last weekend. They are from Northern part of India, and have a keen interest on TN cuisine, so I made authentic south style food for them. Posting few recipes of which I clicked pics. These are very common down south, yet delecable ones.

Ingredients :-
Snakegourd - 500 gm
salt - 2 tsp
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup
channa dhal- 1/2 cup
red chillis- 2 or 3
for seasoning - mustard, urid dhal (whole or broken), hing and curry leaves.


Method :-
Soak Toor and channa dhal for 2 hours in warm water and then coarsely grind them adding a spoon of salt and 2-3 chillis. Keep the mixture aside.
Boil some water in a pan and cook the chopped snakegourd. Remember that about an ounce of water would do for cooking the said quantity of the vegetable. Once the veggie is cooked, add a spoon of salt, mix well and keep it aside.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet, add mustard, let them splutter then add urid hing and curry leaves. Saute them. Now add the lentils mixture, simmer and cook until the mixture turns brown. Keep stirring as the mixture tends to stick to the pan. You may add oil generously to speeden the process, else it takes about 20 minutes. Once you could sense the aroma of nicely fried dhal, add the cooked vegetable and mix well (making sure not to break the veggie into very small unidentifiable pieces!!).
This paruppusili is a common item in the platter of marriages or any such functions in Tamil Nadu.
ps:Other than snakegourd vegetables like Green Beans, Runner Beans or Mangetout (Avarakkai in Tamil), Carrot or Banana Flower could be used.

Bottlegourd Surprise

A friend had invited our family for dinner. She had prepared bottlegourd halwa for dessert and I was absolutely bowled over by the taste. That's when I realised I had NEVER used bottlegourd earlier. I decided to give it a try and with the tips from my mum, prepared the below mentioned dish. I made kheer, halwa, koottu and curry (on different days ofcourse!!) and I'm impressed with the veggie, which is supposed to have nutritional benefits as well.
Here's one which could be had with rice / rotis.

Ingredients :-
Bottlegourd - about 500 gm
cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon
curd - 1 tablespoon
grated coconut - 1 cup
green chillis - 2
coriander leaves - just enough to garnish
salt - 1 spoon or as per your taste
Mung dhal - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 1 tablespoon

Method :-
Soak the mung dhal in double the quantity of water. Set it aside for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a pan and add oil. Add some jeera (cumin seeds) and saute for few seconds.(make sure jeera doesn't turn dark). Now add bottle gourd pieces (peeled and cut into small cubes) and saute for few seconds. Add some water and allow the vegetable to cook until just tender. Add salt while the veggie is getting cooked, so that the salt is absorbed within the veggie. Simmer the hob. Grind chillis, jeera and grated coconut (chutney consistency) and add the mixture to the pan. Leave it for sometime for all the ingredients to blend well. Once off the hob, allow it to cool and then add the mung dhal (make sure to drain all water) and curd. Garnish with coriander leaves/parsley.

TIPS :
-Any dish that you prepare using a combi of coconut and jeera would taste better if you use coconut oil.
- This could be prepared without mung dhal, and would only taste better.

I couldn't call it curry, as there was this gravy.. couldn't name it kootu either as it wasn't of that consistency.. Kosumbari wasn't a good choice for the name as that wouldn involve raw veggies...hence just called it bottlegourd surpirse.. sorry peoples..if you've thought this to be some icecream recipe (like mango surprise).

Cabbage With A Spicy Twist

I have majorly been a good girl as far as eating is concerned. I eat most of the vegetables. However there are certain vegetables which I don’t hate per se but I don’t enjoy eating them as well. Tinda, lauki & cabbage are case in example. Thanks to my Mom I know a recipe of cabbage which makes it taste different and tasty (somewhat!).

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

Cabbage                    ½ kg (Finely cut)

Potato                       1 (sliced)

Onion                        1 big (finely chopped)

Tomato                      1 (Finely Chopped)

Salt                           To Taste   

Red Chilly Powder        To Taste

Oil                            1 teaspoon

Ginger Garlic Paste      1 tablespoon

 

Whole Garam Masala i.e.

Ajwain                       ½ tea spoon

Elaichi                        1 big & 1 small

Cloves                       3-4

Cinnamon                   A very small piece

Tej Pata                     1 small

Black Pepper              4-5

Dry whole Red Chilli     1

In a kadhai pour the oil, as soon as it heats up put the whole Garam masala. As soon as it splutters put in the chopped onions & cook it on medium heat.

As the onion turns transparent add cabbage & potato, salt & chilly powders to taste, cover the thing and let it cook on low flame. After say about 5-10 mins put the ginger garlic paste; turn the vegetables and let it cook. When the veggies are cooked add tomato and cover the thing and let it cook. 

When the tomato is cooked, pull away the lid and cook the vegetable at high flame for 5 mins and the vegetable is ready. Garnish it with coriander and serve preferably with paratha’s.

This dish is very easy & simple to cook but the khada garam masala (whole) & ajwain change the taste of the subzi.

The same recipe can be used alternatively for different vegetable; all you have to do is to replace the cabbage with a cauliflower.

With the same recipe you can make Dum Aloo (take baby potatoes) and all you have to do is to add a teaspoon of curd while adding tomato. Rest all remains the same.

Trust me this recipe has never failed me and if you have surprise guests at dinner and only have boring vegetable like cabbage at home then this is the best variation you can come up with.

PS: The Garam masala makes the thing spicy so go slow as far as red chilly is concerned